My First Grade Classroom: A Helpful Reflection

I wanted to share some class pics from my First Grade Classroom with you, before I switch my gears to fourth grade!- Our school is currently undergoing a few renovations.  The original school building was built 60 years plus ago ,  and has had several additions since. (I was in one of the newer buildings.)  The original building, I heard, has three different ceilings, so they are removing them and adding new A/C, electrical ,and technology wiring!- I will be moving into one of the original classrooms next year, so stay tuned.... That being said, before the year was over the entire school had to pack everything up, and I mean everything, and I quickly took pictures of my "former" class to share....

I displayed my students' work all year long on these 12'x12" laminated scrapbook papers.  I took black and white pics of each student and made special name plates for each one. I really loved this display, but I do not know how I will incorporate it next year.

 

Let me warn you.... as you continue to scroll down, you will notice I like to use primary colors (+green) in my class decor, but I could never find the perfect border...so I made my own border.  I used 12"x12" scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby, laminated, and cut it out!- 

 

Entrance into the classroom....

 

 "The Greatest People in the World Walk Through This Door."

I've had this little sign since I started teaching, it's going on 16 years, and

I still post it above the door!

 

 

 

(I decorated the little chipboard letter B and made some for my first grade family!)

 

Directly on the wall to the right of the door was our Lunch Count and Attendance chart.  

 

 A little to the left were the student cubbies.

 

A quick snapshot of my closet.  It was small, but I was happy to have it!

The next wall, directly in front of the entrance wall, was the  Reading Rounds Area.

 

 

I used these colorful containers to organize the materials for each reading group.  Behind the blue curtains, I organized all of my reading  "goodies" in these plastic show boxes.

 

 

Below is a quick look at the word wall.  This year I used the space below the word wall to display story vocabulary charts. 

 

Here is a closer look at the story vocabulary charts I made for our basal story of the week. We use Reading Street in our district, and so I used the amazing words list to create these.  They included a kid friendly definition, synonyms and antonyms for each word. The kids would use them when they had  a writing assignment! 

Immediately to the left of my word wall was a wonderful large cabinet that housed a 5'x6' shelving unit.  My hubby and father-in-law built it for me a couple of years ago.  I will leave it for my sweet friend to use next year. On the doors of the cabinet, I created a WOW work board, and I made a special Phonics Focus Wall.  This past year I chose to only display the current phonics content taught, and retire those the students had really grasped.  They also kept a personal word wall book in their desks to refer to when writing. The reading center area and writing "nook" were all located in this corner of the room.

 

The next wall was my calendar and whole group meeting area.  We met on the mat for our daily math meetings, lessons, and read alouds. The blue containers below is where I housed my math tubs for math rounds.  My centers were located throughout the room in nifty little dishpans (below the big book stand was the poetry center.)

 

If you look below the green hand you'll see the

Table Captain Chart!- I loved this! This is not my idea. I'm afraid I don't remember where I read about a Supply Captain, and just changed it to Table Captain and made a handy chart. Each week one student was responsible for passing out paper, books, supplies, etc.  It was great!  Saved me from a lot of those extra little duties that take up so much valuable time.

 



The computer center was located to the left side of this wall.

My desk and technology center was located closely to the

computer center. Although we didn't have a Smart Board, we did

have document cameras, and projectors.

Behind my desk/technology center was the student management chart

along with our classroom expectations.  

 This is a view of the left side of this wall. The center work board, birthday chart, 

student learning expectations, and student assistant boards were located here.

 

Well, that was my first grade classroom!- I've always loved using the bright primary colors.  I am not certain if I will carry that over to my fourth grade classroom.  I've been in "lower primary" mode for so long, and now I am about to switch to "upper primary"! As a teacher, you understand what I mean.

I hope to post my new classroom on a new blog.  I hope you'll take a peek!- I've been working on creating the new blog, and I'm really digging the colors. I'm considering using those new colors next year!- Let me know what you think.  See you soon....

 Fairway to Fourth Grade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Latest News

Well, it's May and there is a buzz in the hallways!- We have only four weeks to wrap up the year and the kids are ready for summer! (I'm pretty sure the teachers are too!) I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  We have four weeks and still so much more to learn.  I was fortunate to have a fabulous student teacher in my class for the past seven weeks.  She will be leaving this week, and I am already missing her!- Good Luck Miss Young! She's a natural!-
As for my summer to come; on the list for my "short" summer: as much family time as possible, teaching summer school, celebrating my 7th anniversary, attending the CAMT- Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching, and preparing myself to reenter into the world of Fourth Grade! Yes, I will be teaching fourth grade math and science this upcoming school year.  I am super excited and look forward to learning and sharing all things new in fourth grade.  I've started my blog searches for fourth grade blogs....if you have any favs, please pass the word, it's been ten years since I taught a third/fourth grade split class (and that was for one year!)  Times have changed, and so have the skills!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!!!

Save 20% on everything in my TPT shop, and enter the promo code for an extra 10%....

Little Light Bulbs Glowing

We've been back from Spring Break for a week, and I am starting to see those little light bulbs glowing! The time between Christmas and Spring Break really makes you feel like you are making a difference. This is definitely the best time of the year. My little friends are confidently growing  as "independent" readers.  Although they have been reading independently for a while now, they are finally making the connection, "Hey, I can read, I can really read!"  I will never forget one student in particular from about 5 years ago.  He was reading in his group and out of the blue stops reading, looks straight at me, and says, "I get it, now! It's like a movie! When you read, the story plays like a movie in your head!" Love it!

 



 

Editable Book Bins

It's Spring Break, and I've enjoyed my time with my beautiful son!  I wanted to let you know that I have added an editable file for the book bins!- Yes, I know.... finally!- It is available for FREE and I made 12 different colors.  I hope that you will find them useful. 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Book Bins

I wanted to share pictures of my recently updated and "organized" Reading Center.  If you know me, then you know I like to decorate my classroom using the primary colors, plus green.  I wanted to buy those wonderful colorful book bins in the school magazines, but after you multiply them by the number of books you have, it can get quite expensive!-  So, I opted to use ice bins!- My good friend Haliegh, said she saw them pinned on Pinterest, and so, here is my version:

They were about $1.88 at Wal-Mart.  I made the labels to match my color theme, and love the way they turned out.  I have a big cabinet my husband and father-in-law built for me, and plan on tackling those books by summer!-

 

I had a friend ask me to make some in a few different colors, so I am working on those.  When I complete them I'll have link for you to download a freebie template to edit for yourself!  Have any color suggestions? Let me know!

 

How Do They Do It?

The title says it all!  How do all the fabulous bloggers out there do it all?  I just squeezed in a few minutes while my little guy takes a late afternoon nap!
It's been quite a while since I reintroduced myself into the world of blogging and again life smacks a huge STOP sign in front of me! Those who know me are aware that the past 14 months of my little family's life has been a wild ride!  This Thanksgiving we had A LOT to be thankful for. My poor hubby has had 3 surgeries since last September of '12, but we thank God all is well!- Too often we forget to list the things we DO have instead of the things we don't have.  We have health, love, and family!- What more can you ask for? Praise God, He is good!
I hope to re-venture into this blogging realm, and hope you will be a part of it. :)
Happy Beginning to the Best Part of the Year!

If you teach in Texas...

About two weeks ago a couple of good friends and I attended a great workshop on the Revised Math TEKS to be fully implemented during the 2014-2015 school year.  However, many Texas school districts will begin the transition this year.  The workshop was two days long, but filled with detailed information on the deletion of some skills, and the addition of others!  Two of the "biggies" that stood out for me was the following: Revised TEKS 1(2)(B) Number and operations:  The student is expected to use concrete and pictorial models to compose and decompose numbers up to 120 in more than one way as so many hundreds, so many tens, and so many ones. and Revised TEKS 1(4)(C) Number and operations: The student is expected to use relationships to count by twos, fives, and tens to determine the value of a collection of pennies, nickels, and/or dimes.

I was very excited because at the end of the last school year I created a condensed number line that displays and connects pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to the number line. It includes the numbers all the way to 120, and a desk version for my students (with the numbers 0-30.) It looks something like this....

If you would like a better preview click here: Condensed Number Line 0-120 with Money

 

 

I also created a a 1-120 number chart that highlights twos, fives, tens, pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters!- Here a few views of those charts....

 

If you would like a better preview click here: 1- 120 Number Charts

 

 

 

If you would like a free copy of the basic 1-120 Number Chart,

click here to download: Basic 1-120 Number Chart

 

 

Let me know how you use them!-